'Addictive' Sweets?

Paddy ann. I agree completely about tablet!

At Christmas they did a chocolate smokers selection box with pipe etc!

I remember all those sweets, bar the liquorice root, loved them all as a child. I think allowing kids to play at ‘drinking alcohol’ is sensible as it teaches moderation and takes away the mystery and taboo..... in France kids get watered wine....so Ribena in a wine glass seems pretty tame! My parents always allowed me a tiny glass of beer.....aged 5! And as I got older weak Dubonet and lemonade....far from turning me into an alcoholic....it taught me to drink in moderation.....and I still do! My friends parents were stricter and they were very silly with alcohol as soon as they were old enough to drink legally. We had kids wine and champagne.....fruit drinks....bought in France for my two and they are both sensible drinkers. Ok both I and they have overdone it occasionally...who hasn’t? But it’s the exception not the rule!

I remember the sweet cigarettes, liquorice pipes and chocolate smokers sets too and seriously can't believe they made anyone take up smoking, any more than the tiny sherry glass of ribena (you can get a sugar free version now) will lead to a life of heavy drinking! On the contrary, young people always find 'forbidden fruit' more desirable I think.

Brought back childhood memories but never succumbed to the real thing unlike many of my friends.

My brother always got a smoker’s set, which contained chocolate pipe, cigars, cigarettes, and an ashtray!

And, talking of things in familiar containers, my father’s aunt was always known to be very ‘ perjink’ ( think Hyacinth Bucket!) I remember their mirth when she was unobserved and sneaked a slug from a lemonade bottle in their kitchen.
It was turpentine her husband had borrowed from a neighbour.

Your dd would despair of me then as at around 6 my children were allowed a small amount of white wine topped up with soda at Christmas/birthdays etc. It was treated as a special treat and neither have grown up to drink much. My ds did the usual out with mates clubbing and drinking in late teens but by early 20s didn't enjoy it any more and dd never been much of a drinker. Ashe a child I was allowed a small sherry at times of celebration and although partied in my early 20s haven't drunk since my 30s when I had kids and now in my 60s don't like it much except for the odd baileys at Christmas. I think as others have said it isore to do with peer pressure and we seem to read too much into things these days. Your gc probably didn't even register alcohol just having a nice time with gd. Does she think pkaying with dolls will make her rush out and get pregnant? Parents worry too much about too much rather than enjoy the way their children play and think

Also loved spanish wood as a child. Now in my seventies bought some from a shop in Covent Garden - disgusting - how tastes change.

I think observing mum and others around tempt children to drink alcohol far more than being allowed their normal drink in a sherry or similar glass. Sweet tobacco can still be found online with a company called A Quarter Of - can't tell you if it tastes the same though. I loved the original, it was a real treat for dad to buy me some!

I'd be more worried about the wine glass than what was in it... I never gave my two AC thin glasses when they were young, as I was always afraid that they'd take a bite at the rim (as they did with their plastic cups) and get a mouthful of glass..!
I too remember the sweet cigarettes - I didn't like the taste of them, and have never had the slightest desire to try the real thing, as I grew up in a house where my DF & DGF smoked heavily (passive smoking is probably why I've developed asthma in adulthood..!) and I used to lie in bed in the mornings listening to them hack and cough and thinking, 'I'm NEVER being like that..!!'

I too remember the chocolate smoker's selection box at Christmas. I always wanted the pipe because Dad smoked one. Nobody knew about the dangers of passive smoking in those days. I don't remember smoke in the house being a problem but the car was another thing. I'm sure it contributed to motion sickness. It makes me feel queasy thinking about it.

One thing I always remember is Dad saying that the crews of Sunderland flying boats were the only ones allowed to smoke while on missions because they had to endure some seriously cold temperatures. Not sure how a lone cigarette could warm you up but apparently the wireless operator always smoked a pipe because he had to send Morse code and needed to keep his fingers warm.

No wonder so many died of lung cancer in later years.

I used to eat those sweet cigarettes too - and the cigars but I managed to give them up which is just as well as I ended up with too many fillings in my teeth!

ribena (you can get a sugar free version now
Not that disgusting aspartame - I'd rather mine had a teaspoon of sugar than any of that awful stuff.

I can remember when DN quietly crept around one Christmas afternoon when the adults were half asleep, hoovering up the dregs of everyone's port and sherry. She must have been about 7 at the time. We suddenly realised when we heard giggling.
She likes a glass of wine now but has never over-indulged.

Christmas stockings came with an orange, sweet cigarettes and a chocolate pipe, but I needn't have worried about becoming addicted to the tipple at grandma's, as it was QC British sherry, ugh

Funnily enough ,we were looking in an old fashioned sweet shop the other day and they had the sweet tobacco. Coconut strips covered in chocolate. I was tempted.

Yup, I had those sweet cigarettes and loads of other sweet things. I smoked from teenage till 26, when I stopped. But I now hate all sweet things, except for the odd square of dark chocolate, so it can have the opposite effect!

Yes, I had all these ciggy sweets as a child and don’t smoke but do love chocolate. But I must agree with Paddyann this time - tablet is irresistible. I try not to make it very often!
We once caught small son sticking his finger in granny’s sherry glass and licking it - he doesn’t have a drink problem.

I don't like sweets now - apart from fudge and I tried tablet once but will have to resist buying any more (delicious).

My sister and I loved sweet cigarettes and leaned to suck the end until sticky then stick it to our lower lip like old men did with real cigarettes. Imagine my mother's shame when we, as members of the Sunday School filed into church from behind the altar with our 'cigarettes' dangling from our bottom lips.

Re the Spanish wood. As a child we used to call licorice spanish. I have no idea why though, does anyone know?

You can still buy sweeties cigarettes. When i was a child you could buy fake cigs which looked realistic and appeared to be lit. My friend walked into her house with one in her mouth. Her mother went crazy and knocked my friend to the floor, hitting her and screaming at her. It was such a shock to me to see her mother act like that. The mother was a chain smoker, but still that was an over reaction.

SueDoko I was born and raised in a house of smokers I married a smoker and my in laws and their relatives were also smokers. What is the fascination for such an unhealthy habit?

I have never smoked, but I simply loved the pretend cigarettes, both the white kind with the red tip that tasted as if they were made entirely of sugar and the chocolate ones which came in a very fancy box. The others could be bought in packets with five or ten.

The Danish version were made of liquorice with rice-paper "cigarette paper" and they were sold in packets that were practically identical to grown up Camel cigarettes.
At my Danish grandmother's we had special coloured glasses on a stem that we were only allowed to drink from on Sundays, or birthdays. We pretended our diluted homemade red currant juice was wine.
Daddy's parents were teetotallers, so no "wine" or cigarettes there!

Grey duster, don't throw the liquorice root away. Boiled up in water the juice can be strained and sweetened with honey to make a really good cough mixture for the kind of hacking cough that sadly is bound to come along sometime in the coming autumn or winter.

At a family wedding when DS1 was about 6 we didn't realise that he had spent quite sometime going round drinking the dregs from wine glasses. One of his sisters spotted him, and thinking we would be cross told my BIL. He was a lovely old fashioned policeman and found him looking very poorly. Took him outside,
held his head while he was sick and gave him a short lecture before returning him to us. Never knew if it was the sickness or the lecture but to this day DS1 rarely drinks any alcohol!!!

DN wasn't sick - just very giggly. Although I think she had a couple of accomplices in the form of little brothers!